“The Biggest Band in the World” (1971–1975)
The band’s diverse musical tendencies were fused on its untitled fourth album, whose actual title was given as four unpronounceable symbols (); it is thus variously referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, Zoso, Runes, or Four Symbols. (Not only is the album itself without a conventional title - on the original packaging, there is no indication of the name of the band.) Released on November 8, 1971, this record included hard rock such as "Black Dog", Tolkienesque fantasy on "The Battle of Evermore", and a combination of both genres in the lengthy, suite-like "Stairway to Heaven", a massive album-oriented rock FM radio hit which, despite its success, has never been released as a single. The album concludes with one of their best blues songs, a Memphis Minnie cover titled "When the Levee Breaks".
Their next studio record, 1973's Houses of the Holy, featured further experimentation: powerful melodies, longer tracks and expanded use of synthesizers and Mellotron orchestration. With "The Song Remains the Same", "No Quarter" and "D'yer Mak'er" (pronounced "Jamaica", which was fitting, given the song's reggae feel), Led Zeppelin was again pushing the limits defining rock music. Their 1973 tour of the U.S. again broke records for attendance: at Tampa Stadium, Florida they played to 56,800 fans (more than the Beatles' 1965 concert at Shea Stadium). Three sold-out New York shows at Madison Square Garden were filmed for a concert motion picture, but this project would be delayed for several years.
In 1974, Led Zeppelin launched their own record label called Swan Song, named after one of only five songs that the band never recorded for commercial release (the track was re-tooled as "Midnight Moonlight" by Page's post-Zeppelin band The Firm on their first album). In addition to using it as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label's roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, Pretty Things, Maggie Bell, Detective, Dave Edmunds, Midnight Flyer, Sad Café and Wildlife.
1975 saw the release of Physical Graffiti, their first double-album, on the Swan Song label. Led Zeppelin again showed their impressive range with songs like the lush and complex "Ten Years Gone", the acoustic "Black Country Woman", the driving "Trampled Underfoot" and the thundering, Indian-Arabic-tinged "Kashmir".
Shortly after the release of Physical Graffiti, the entire Led Zeppelin catalogue of six albums simultaneously re-entered the top-200 album chart. The band embarked on another U.S. tour, again playing to record-breaking crowds. To top off the year, they played five sold-out nights at the UK's Earls Court (these shows were recorded, portions of which would be released on DVD some 28 years later). At this peak of their career, Led Zeppelin was the biggest rock band in the world.
If the band's popularity on stage and record was impressive, so too was its reputation for excess and off-stage wildness. Zeppelin traveled in a private jet (nicknamed "The Starship"), rented out entire sections of hotels, and became the subjects of many of rock's most famous stories of debauchery: trashed hotel rooms (TVs out the window, motorcycling in the halls), kinky sex and heavy use of drugs and alcohol. Several people associated with the band would later write books about the wild escapades of the group, while band members themselves have disavowed many of the tales.
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The Latter Days (1976-1982)
In 1976 the band took a break from the road and began filming "fantasy" segments for the concert film entitled "The Song Remains The Same". During this break, Robert Plant and his wife were in a car crash while on holiday in Greece. Plant suffered a broken ankle; Maureen Plant was very seriously injured, and only a flight back to London and a timely blood transfusion saved her life. Unable to tour, the band returned to the studio and, with Plant sitting on a stool during the sessions, they recorded their seventh studio album, Presence. The album was a platinum seller, but marked a change in the Zeppelin sound, as straightforward, guitar-based jams such as "Nobody's Fault But Mine" had replaced the intricate arrangements of previous albums. A highlight of the album was the epic-length Achilles Last Stand featuring a driving bassline and thundering drums, melodic Page riffs and a memorable guitar solo. Overall, the album received mixed responses from critics and fans, with some appreciating the looser style and others dismissing it as sloppy; some critics speculated that the band's legendary excesses may have caught up with them at last. The year 1976 marked the beginning of Page's heroin use, a habit which would often interfere with their live shows and studio recordings in their later years.
Late 1976 finally saw the release of the concert film The Song Remains the Same and its soundtrack double LP. Despite the release date, the concert footage was actually from 1973; it would be the only filmed document of the group available for the next 20 years. The soundtrack album of the film had some songs missing and some added compared to the film, and some songs are different cuts from the three nights the band performed at Madison Square Garden. The soundtrack is not generally considered a great live album, but it would remain the only official live document of the band until the eventual release of the BBC Sessions in 1997.
In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another massive U.S. tour, again selling out up to five nights in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. (Seattle and Cleveland shows from this tour were the sources of bootleg recordings prized by fans.) Following a show at the "Day on the Green" festival in Oakland, the news came that Robert Plant's son, Karac, had died from a respiratory infection. Other problems during this time included an arrest of several members of the band's support staff (including Manager Peter Grant) after almost beating a member of the Bill Graham's Oakland concert staff to death during the concert (which resulted in the rest of the tour being canceled), and malicious critics and superstitious fans whispering of a "curse" said to be related to Page's interest in the occult. Such charges were scoffed at by the band.
The summer of 1978 saw the group recording again, this time at Swedish Polar Studio, owned by the pop group ABBA; this album would be titled In Through the Out Door and would highlight the talents of John Paul Jones and of drummer John Bonham on the epic "Carouselambra" and the tropical "Fool In The Rain". The album also featured rockers like "In The Evening", and the balladic tribute to Plant's son, "All My Love". After a decade of recording and touring, the band was now considered a dinosaur in some quarters, as mainstream musical tastes had moved in favor of disco and critical focus had turned to punk rock. Nevertheless, the band still commanded legions of loyal fans, and the album easily reached #1 in the US and UK.
In the summer of 1979, after two warm-up shows in Copenhagen, Led Zeppelin was booked as headliner at England's Knebworth Festival in August. Close to 150,000 fans witnessed the return of Led Zeppelin and, with the release of In Through the Out Door in August, they were ready to tour again, planning a short European tour followed by another American tour.
The 1980 American tour was not to be, however. On September 25, 1980, shortly before embarking on the U.S. leg of the tour, drummer John Bonham died of accidental asphyxiation after a day long alcohol binge. For two months the remaining band members considered whether to continue with a replacement, but decided that because of Bonham's death, they could not continue as Led Zeppelin, and so in December 1980, they announced that the group had disbanded. For many years after, there would be rumours of a reunion and plans for various collaborative projects.
Two years after Bonham's death, the band released Coda, a collection of out-takes from previous recording sessions. In the years to follow, a steady stream of boxed sets and greatest-hits collections would keep the band on the charts, as Led Zeppelin continued to garner heavy airplay on rock radio.